Splashing Out.

Should I allow myself to believe that I spent a whopping £23.99 on a shirt today? I suppose I’d better because it’s currently lying in a bag waiting to be placed on a hanger, thence to be conveyed to its appointed place in the wardrobe.

I’m short of heavy winter shirts, you see, and in this house I need them between December and March. Accordingly, I’ve been scouring the charity shops ever since last spring hoping to find one or two at the sort of price I normally pay for shirts from charity shops (that’s usually between £5.99 and £8.99.) No luck; not a winter weight shirt in sight, at least not in my size.

So today I went into one of the specialist outdoor shops in Ashbourne to see what they had to offer. (Interesting that we have two specialist outdoor shops in such a small town. It’s because Ashbourne gets lots of seasonal visitors taking a town break from the rigours of mooching around the rugged Peak District, which starts just north of the town and is full of rocky outcrops, blooming heather, and long distance walkers on their way to Northumberland.)

What they had to offer was a small variety of heavy winter shirts at various prices, but all reduced because the Peak District mooching season contracts quite considerably between November and March. I chose the grey and black version of the best of them, and the one saving grace of paying an almost unprecedented £23.99 for a shirt was that it was originally priced at £44.

That made me feel better, and it’s not the first time. My super-splendid £250 walking coat cost me £99.99, and I paid £75 for my top notch raincoat instead of £150, both because I waited for the season to be advantageous. I embrace the virtue of patience very readily when it comes to spending money.